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Naoto Yanagi
is a sophomore student at Shuuhoku University. He is the heir to the Yanagi business conglomerate and comes from a rich and influential family. Paired with his looks, athletism, and brains, he was treated much like a king during his elementary school days. However, he was beaten by Mikoto Kujou, a girl complete opposite of him, in both academics and sports after she transferred into his class in primary school, to which Yanagi tasted the feeling of defeat for the first time. After a brief confrontation with her that left him shocked, he vowed to outdo her no matter the cost. For the past ten years, he has been chasing her throughout middle school, high school, and university in order to keep his promise to defeat Mikoto, his (one-sided) rival. He is the main protagonist of the Last Game series. Appearance Yanagi is a tall, lean, young man with blond, short and slightly spiked hair. Mikoto mentioned that his hair actually is and looks quite soft. He has light blue eyes- sometimes being depicted as green. He is considered handsome by many girls around him, which has made him very popular with girls. Personality When Yanagi was young, he was shown to be the "King" of his school. He thought of himself as the King of his world. He excels at almost everything and is the target of the female population's admiration, much to the disdain of some boys. When Mikoto transferred to his school, Yanagi considered her his rival because he sees her as arrogant even if it's the other way around. He dismissed his tutors and wanted to defeat Kujou with his own strength. When in front of other people, Yanagi's gentleman side is shown. In front of Mikoto, he retains his childish personality. Mikoto also stated that even though Yanagi is rich and handsome, he doesn't show off. Yanagi is shown to really care about Mikoto, although he often denies it. Souma describes him and Kujou as idiots. When it comes to romance, he is quite poor och naive as he has been in an unrequited love for 10 years. Though, he is determined to get Mikoto to fall in love with him. He can get jealous easily and have somewhat of a tsundere personality about it. Despite having "a bunch of girlfriends and then breaking up with them" (according to Mikoto) Yanagi loses his interest in other girls and begins to focus on Mikoto, solely, after the story progresses. He accomplishes any attempts to show his affection. Exactly thanks to Mikoto, major changes do encounter within him, such as, the arrogance of his vanishes away, thus making him more approachable and less dependable on his father and family business, which is proven when he signs himself up for a part-time job as a waiter. Even though he is almost too perfect, he has no idea what he wants and seems to be looking down on himself, as he describes himself "in a half-baked state" to Souma. Background Naoto Yanagi was born on April 24th, 1992, as the youngest child to Mr. and Michiyo Yanagi. His older sister, Ryouko Yanagi, was born a year before him. He comes off from a prestigious and rich family, and is the heir to the Yanagi business conglomerate. His father owns a hotel, which is well-known all around the world. As a child, he used to inspire himself from his father's establishments in business, and admire him in every single way, often wanting himself to grow up to be like his father. Because of his family's position, he developed somewhat of an arrogant personality. Due to excelling at everything he did in primary school - studies and sports, being invited to talent agencies countless of times, and even being considered attractive, he used to believe that the surrounders of his must be treating him like a king. Even though he had an arrogant personality, he was still popular among his classmates and teachers, especially the girls. He was used to all this attention he had gotten, but that changed when a new girl, Mikoto Kujou, transferred into his class in fifth grade. His first impression of her was a "gloomy, poor" girl, thinking nothing special about her, just to be proven wrong afterward: she defeats in everything he's good at, both studies and sports, which infuriates him. He decides to talk to her due to being too arrogant when it's the other way around. Her nonchalant reaction to him made Yanagi confront her about his family's position, but she noted that his fortune came from his father, not from him. After this, he wanted to have more cram classes and tutors in order to beat Mikoto. After passing out one day while going to cram school, he was taken to Mikoto's home by her, when she saw him passed out on the road. Mikoto explained her family circumstances, living in a single-parent family and about her mother who works hard to raise her. Yanagi felt like he had been defeated by someone from the first time, wanting to beat her with his own power. From that moment, Yanagi made it his life-goal to defeat Mikoto and win. Though he initially thought about entering a selective middle school established for rich kids, he chose the public middle school Mikoto did, "to get know society, not because of her". Somewhere in between this time, Yanagi, who wanted to become like his father once older, stopped imitating him. He also dismissed all of the tutors and went through a period where he wanted to quit cram school (which were all because of Mikoto according to Yanagi himself). His mother claims that it was his "rebellious stage", and in middle school he would almost never communicate, saying things like "I don't wanna", or "I don't know". When his father would scold him, he would reply by saying that a grown-up wouldn't understand his feelings, much to Yanagi's embarrassment once he grew older. In middle school, Yanagi was in different classes with Mikoto and had almost no contact with her, but he stated that he never forgot her very existence. He was kept busy with the attention he got: he was even more popular among girls and was admired and envied by people around him. Despite that, he never defeated Mikoto in those three years in both tests and athletic contests, always ranking beneath her, much to his annoyance. Though he actually cared for Mikoto and wanted her to see him from her eyes, he became furious with her after a minor incident with her after she bumped into his chin after waking up, to which Yanagi promised himself he would make her cry. When he overheard two students talking about a plan, saying that whoever would fall in love first, loses; Yanagi got his inspiration from this and initiates a plan of his own; to make Mikoto fall in love with him, confess, only to rejects her without mercy and make her cry. When they enroll at the same high school, Yanagi starts to spend a lot of time with her to make her fall in love with him (which he thinks would be easy) but every time Yanagi tries to make moves she just casually "brushes" it off, much to Yanagi's chagrin. Due to him bothering her at all times, they are always together and they have been mistaken as a couple a number of times. However, after an incident where Mikoto's mother got in an accident, Yanagi saw emotions on the girl he thought only had one face. After helping her get to the hospital, Mikoto thanked Yanagi with a warm smile. Sometime after this, Yanagi falls in love with her. However, though she mentions that he has "hated" her all this time, he has actually liked her since they met. Mikoto also begins to think of him as a friend since she is antisocial and he is the only friend she has had since they met. Relationships Mikoto Kujou It is shown that he first thinks of Kujou as his rival, as he proceeds on making a plan to make her fall for him and then break her heart which backfired as it turns into him liking her. His feelings for her turned into unrequited love, much to his dismay, that lasted until about ten years. Yanagi is also the one who helps Mikoto breaks out of her shell and made friends with other people, hence Mikoto thinking of him as her only friend and wanting an eternal friendship with him, not knowing about his feelings. These two are clueless about each other's feelings, often thinking that the other party only thinks of them as a friend. It's not until the last minute that Mikoto realizes her feelings for him, which leads her to "attempt" confess her feelings; though, Yanagi simply mistakes it with a daydream, - or better just a dream. Yanagi, on the other note, describes himself to be sitting in a half-baked state, for which he cannot get ahead of himself and ask Kujou out. To pursue his goals and become the proud man, standing before Mikoto's eyes, he takes a consideration on his father's deal: to fly to the USA with him to study and become his successor (however, if he accepts, his father's stated, he would be stricter than ever). In the end of the story, she and Naoto married in the church witnessed by their family and friends. Kei Souma The two considers each other rivals (mostly in Souma's part). Souma tried to take Mikoto away from him in order to have something Yanagi doesn't. Similar to Yanagi's case, Souma also eventually developed feelings for Mikoto. He likes to comment about Yanagi and Mikoto being idiots, and is often annoyed and irked about their interactions due to his crush on her. It is stated that even though Kujou rejected him for Yanagi, he can't bring himself to hate Yanagi. Momoka Tachibana Tachibana keeps a superficial cute personality at first, but she is revealed to be aggressive and only joined the circle because she likes Yanagi. Even though Tachibana is mildly aware of Yanagi and Kujou, she still chases after Yanagi only to get rejected in the end. Despite that, Tachibana is the one who made Kujou aware of her feelings for Yanagi. Abilities He is shown to excel in almost everything, academics and sports included. He is also a member of the Tennis Club, and it's also known that he's very good in sports. The only person who has been able to beat him in both academics and sport is Kujou. Trivia * According to Yanagi, the type of girl he likes is someone who is not smarter than him, is not better than him in sports, will not forget his face and doesn't braid her hair in two,Chapter 1, page 30 which is ironic because he was referring to Mikoto, who he actually was in love with her all the time. * When Yanagi ran into Mikoto during Middle school, she forgot his face.Chapter 1, pages 27-28 ** She also forgot his first name in University. * In primary school, during the 50 meters sprint test, Yanagi took 7.8 seconds whereas Mikoto took 7.4 seconds.Chapter 1, page 10 *He and Mikoto got married on June 15, 2019.Stated in a tweet. Since Yanagi and Mikoto are 27 years old at that time, they should be born in 1992. *Yanagi was seen being in almost every single picture Mikoto was in when they attended high school.Chapter 27, page 15 *Yanagi admits him following Mikoto everywhere is a bit stalkerish (but won't admit it because he wants to "protect" his heart). However, he is indeed a bit of a stalker as noted by Souma, as he sometimes tracks Mikoto down through GPS (presumably only when she's with Souma, though).Chapter 55.5, page 9 *He tends to become very emotional while drunk and cries a lot. Quotes *"Let's bid for Last Game... Kujou."Chapter 1, page 2 *"I knew it all along... No matter what happens, she's the one I want. Even if I hurt others, I won't give up on her... I can't help it. That's just how love is."Chapter 22, pages 23-26 (About Mikoto) References Category:Characters Category:Male Characters